Desiccating process.



P. BEVENOT L E. DE NEVEU.

DESIGGATING PROCESS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 1o, 1906.

Patented Mar. 19, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

P. BEVENOT L E. DE NEVEU.

DBSIOGATING PROCESS.

APPLICATION FILED mulo, 1906,

Patented Mar. 19, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PAI. 'EEvENon ,or lPARIS, AND EDWARD DE NEvEU, or' ASNIERES, FRANCE DESIG CATlfNG PROCESS.

lSpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 19,1912.

Application filed May 10, 1906. Serial No. 316,115.

siding at 7 Rue Lafitte, Paris, France, and.

5 EDWARD DE N EvEU, a citizen of the United States of America, and residing temporarily at 42 Avenue Chevreul, Asnires, Seine,

France, haveinvented a new and Improved Desiccatin'g Process, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

'lhis invention relates to the desiccating vci. f'li'quid products, and is intended to be especiallyuseful for the purpose of desiccatngmIk. By its means milk may be dried andpreserved in such a way that it may be `brought again to a liquid state simply by the addition of cold. water.

The invention consists in the process andv apparatus -to be described more fully hereclaims.

v-Reference is to be had to the accompanying' drawings forming' a part of this specication, in which similar characters of reterence indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

F iguiel4 isy apvertical section through a stoveor apparatus by means ofAwhich'we practice our invention; Fig. 2 is a cross section through one of the nozzles through 'i which the milk is forced; and Fig. 3 is "a detail view of a part of the nozzle shown in Fig-4 is a det-ail section of one of the'nozzler-cones. Fig. 5 is a side view of one of the 'nozzles The' drawing represents apparatus by means of, which our process may be carried out. This apparatus comprises a large chamber C, C" divided .by partitions longi- 40 tudinally 'into a pulverizing chamber C and 'Si an .dx ansion chamber C', to be described i 4more 'll hereinafter.A Into the pulverizcham er C the milk is yconducted and' projected-laterally; by means of a compres- 59361', not shown', so that the milk is directed through the .pulverizer in such a way that :itstansformed without the addition of fair, into sa. mis

andai?t M.', N. The expansion chamheit is arranged above t e pulver'izing chamber' inthis chamber the milk, not 'en-:-

tasty jfdiied," `which has been drawn yepa inafter and particularly set forth in thev 'withinthe said pulverizing 'chamber'. n t is chamber C isfefected thel 50 drying of the milk. in a progressive mannen -faoinabove downwardly/,by the hot air which ai'rves through the longitudinal orificesM,vv

which 'screws a cap "0;

wardly, deposits, by reason of the diminution of its velocity within a larger surface. The solid particles of the milk are drawn up around the regulator or damper R by the current of hot moist vair which escapes around this damper. g, g are obstructions or battles. These 4particles so obstructed, in ialllng 1n this chamber C', are brought intocontact with the ascending current of warm air arriving through the vertical passages O, O', and this current dries the particles in such a manner that they slip down saidfpassages and encounter a lower current of hot air admitted at N, N, which effects a complete drying of the same. The moist ai'r continues its ascending movement and escapes at Z, Z outside into the atmosphere.

We provide two heating chambers S, S along the sides of the drying chamber C, in which the air is heated by means of a series'` of radiator pipes, not shown, through which.

steam circulates; also, two longitudinally 4disposed chambers disposed above'the heating chambers and through which pass the conduits, not shown, carrying the milk from the pumps, not shown, to the pulverizers, and branches, not shown, are provided leading frqm these conduits into 'the cones A, A, A and A, A', A; also, a receiving chamber D where the dried material is collected in the state of powder by ,means of receptacles such as hoppers D', illustrated, placed under the chambers C, C. The inner l surfaces of the drying chambers are constructed so that they u may be readil cleaned and even washed, by means o a forced current of air and water, introduced through openings or in any' other suitable manner. surfaces are covered with a non-conducting substance, with great care, so as to prevent loss of heatthrough the said surfaces.

All the,

The milk ata pressure of from to 200- I atmos heres at theeXtremit-y of a conduct.`

ing tu e, enters tangentially into the body of a nozzle. a;l .this bodyis cylindrical. and v has an interiorheig'ht substantially equal, to' the height of I'the incoming tube, as shown 1 in Fig. 3. The lbottom or lower`head-of this' nozzle is closed by a removable screw, to enable its interior 'to` be4 readily cleaned.v

1 The upper lhead 'ofthe nozzle terminates in b vover dicated; between nozzle, in 'whlch'the're is placed a ri leather orsimilarl material, to Vforni a tight V- joint, the said ring pressing against a thin disk d of steel, nickel-steel, or similar material. In the center of this disk there is formed a very small opening from 3/10 to 1/10 of a millimeter in diameter, accord- -ing to the density of the mixture of milk or the milk itself which iL to be desiccated. Instead of steel or nickel-steel, a perforated stone such as a ruby or asapphire, may be used for replacing the disk. The cap c may be constructed of substantial dimensions so as to resist the pressure, and the threads for connecting the same may be lseveral in number to insure that a tight joint will result.

The liquid is projected into the interior of the nozzle in a tangential manner, and

is turned by the curvature of the wall, in a circular path within the interior of the nozzle, with a high velocity.- It escapes by the central orifice, and by reason of the fact that the thickness of the disk is very small, the orifice through which the milk escapes does not have the effect of guiding the liquid as it passes through, so that a rotary or whirling motion is imparted to the ejected spray 0r mist. In this way the milk is dissipated in all directions as it passest under the nozvzle, the dissipation being largely due, of

course, to the centrifugal force developed in the particles of the liquid by its high velocity developed in a circular path withln the-nozzle.' In thisway the milk is thrown into a very nely divided condition in such away as to produce a mist and not merely a'ne spray.

The mode of operation of the apparatus will now be described.

The liquid under 'suitable pressure, gen-a erally from 15() to 200 atmospheres, depending upon the density of the milk, is driven by the compressor through a series of nozzles or spraying apparatus placed in the cones A, A, A and A', A, A', arranged in the most favorable manner, to cause the liquid to be directed from above downwardly as indicated in Fig. 4. This pressure is communicated directly to the liquid; that is v to say, without the admixtue of any air.

The arrangement is such that the liquid can only arrive within the drying chamber in the state of fog or mist. It isthen subjected successively to the action of hot air which enters from the heating chambers through the orifices M, M', N, N. The dried extracts of the liquid have a temperature which depends upon the material being treated, and varies from 60 .to 99 degrees centigradeyth'at is to say, under 100 degrees, and in the case of milk it is in the neighborhood of 65 to 7 5 C. This dry extract falls upon the 4bottom of the receiving chamber by reason of the fact that the force of the ascending current of air is not suicient to maintain it in suspension, the descent of the milk being promoted by its partially dried condition. In this connection,

it should be understood that the flow of the liquid and the currentof air may be regulated so that at this point a substantially constant temperature may be maintained. The hot air from the orifices M, M and passages 0, O begins the drying of thel liquid, and this is finished by the' warm air arriving through the orifices N, N.

By means of the apparatus described above, the milk solids in the form of powder may be obtained, the said powder containing all the elements of the milk. No coagulation of the caseins or change in the sugar of the milk takes place, nor are the fatty matters of the milk changed in any manner. No precipitation of the salts, such as phosphates, takes place when the powder is again made liquid by the addition of water. The users of this apparatus can, in other words, preserve all the qualities of the milk elements as they were originally in i When dissolved in this'way, the resulting mixture has all the qualities of fresh milk. This result is accomplished entirely without the agencyof chemicals of any kind whatever, so that consumers of the milk will not be subjected to any risk by drinking the milk, and the process conforms strictly with the pure food laws of all countries.

What we claim as our invention is:

l. The process of desiccating liquids containing organic elements which consists in subjecting the liquid to high pressure, in ejecting the liquid at high velocityv by such pressure through a minute orifice in the form of a finely divided mist and into a current of heated air, and in imparting to the ejected mist a rotary motion.

2. The process of desiccating liquids containing organic elements which consists in subjecting the liquid to high pressure, and in ejecting the liquid at high velocity by such pressure through a minute orifice in the form of a finely divided mist and into a current of heated air.

3. The process of desiccating liquids containing organic elements which consists in subjecting the liquidpto a pressure in the neighborhood of one hundred and fifty atmospheres, in ejecting the liquid by vsuch pressure in the form of a finely divided mist through a minute orifice a fraction of a millimeter in diameter and into a current of heated air, and in imparting t'o the ejected mist a rotary motion.

4. The process of desiccating liquids containing organic elements which consists in subjecting the liquid to a pressure in the neighborhood ofI one hundred and fifty atmospheres, and in ejecting the liquid by such pressure in the form of a finely divided mist through a minute orifice a fraction of a millimeter in diameter and into a current of heated air.

5. The process of desiccating organic liquids, such as milk, which consists 1n spraying the liquid into a current of moisture-absorbing dry air, and in imparting to the sprayed liquid a whirling motion.

6. The process of desiccating liquids containing organic elements which consists in forcing the liquid alone under great pressure tangentially into a chamber to produce centrifugal action by rotation and permitting the liquid to escape centrally in a capillarylstream, whereby it is scattered Widely, in the form of a rotary mist and in subjecting such scattered stream to a current of heated air.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

PAUL BVENOT. EDWARD DE NEVEU.

Witnesses:

AUGUSTUS E. INGRAM, HANsoN C. CoxE. 

